Now that SVR has been around long enough to feel secure in its own identity, is there any need to retain the technical "gag rule" that does not allow us to write "NovaRoma" with a space? Let's get rid of it.

Q. Valerius Scerio wrote:Wow, I'm surprised you guys actually had one at all. I'm glad I missed out on all the mess, and survived the latest coup.

In the early years there was a problem, not so much between SVR and NR but with a group of individuals inside NR that was hostile towards SVR. For one thing they held it against people in NR if they were members of SVR and insisted that our sodales be expelled from NR. There was some minor attempts by these NR members to harass our members, and to cause disruptions in our chat rooms and on our Forum. At the same time, many of our early members were people who had left NR and had ill feelings towards NR. We never excluded Nova Romans from SVR. It was suggested at one time by one of SVR's Founders that anyone in SVR who was a member fo NR be expelled. He stood alone in the Senate and when he couldn't have it his way, he left. The Senate decided that rather than become involved in any antagonisms between ourselves with NR or its members that we ignore the problem and just look to developing SVR. Some of our Senators kept open communication with some NR magistrates to ease any tensions that might arise between our respective organizations and to jointly assit one another if our respective members would cause any problems in the other's Forum. As things turned out, it proved that any hostility that existed between our respective individual members did not carry over into a hostility between SVR and NR. The gag rule was put in place so that there would not develop any arguments inside SVR that would be spilling over from NR (as back then internal affairs of NR were rather volatile) or arguments among our members over NR. Since then NR has changed somewhat, and SVR has developed more. More recently, with Corncanius, we saw that some inside SVR still hold an ill view of NR over its past. There may remain some residual hostility between individual members of both organizations, but it doesn't do any good to continue ignoring one another's organizations. Our two communities happen to overlap one another - roughly half of our sodales either are or once were members of NR, and there is no need to continue accomodating a hostility that does not really exist between SVR and NR. The affairs of NR do not concern SVR, and I doubt whether our affairs concern them. Both organizations and their respective members are part of a much larger community of Roman enthusiasts. And maybe it is better to simply recognize that we are both part of a larger community. If we are a mature community in our own right, then it is time to put all of this in the past.